Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will not face federal charges over allegations he transported the head of a dead whale from Massachusetts to New York decades ago and kept the animal’s skull at his home.
A NOAA spokesperson confirmed the agency’s Office of Law Enforcement investigation of the claim, first made by Kennedy’s daughter Kathleen “Kick” Kennedy in a 2012 article published in Town & Country magazine, was closed Oct. 16 after authorities “determined the allegation to be unfounded.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said the story is false.
Shortly after suspending his campaign as an independent presidential candidate on Aug. 23, Kennedy threw his support behind Donald Trump’s candidacy for a second presidential term and become a surrogate at campaign rallies. The story from the magazine article resurfaced after Kennedy endorsed the Republican ticket.
In fact, Kennedy first referenced the NOAA investigation at a Trump campaign event in Arizona, casting the probe as an example of “the weaponization of our government against political opponents.”
NOAA, however, said it launched the investigation at the request of the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, which petitioned the agency in an Aug. 26 letter. NOAA said the agency's Office of Law Enforcement "takes all reports of alleged violations seriously."
Messages left for Stefanie Spear, a Kennedy spokesperson, were not returned Monday morning. But she told CNN: “I hope this frees up NOAA’s enforcement resources so that they can finally investigate the 109 Atlantic whale deaths since 2022 in proximity to offshore wind projects.”
NOAA has said there is no evidence that offshore wind turbine vibration or sonar technologies used by developers to site turbines has harmed whales. One scientist who studies whale deaths last year called the allegation that sonar had contributed to beached humpback whales a "conspiracy theory."
Brett Hartl, national political director for the CBD Action Fund, said he had seen no formal communication about NOAA dropping its investigation but added, “I’m glad NOAA did some amount of due diligence here, and we respect their decision to close it.”
Kennedy, a longtime environmental activist who has broken ranks with many of his former allies, opposes offshore wind energy development, citing alleged harm to federally protected whales. It’s a theme Trump has also sounded, including last week in an webcast interview with podcaster Joe Rogan.
“Those things are 50-story buildings, some of them. The wind is rushing. The things are blowing. It’s a vibration and it makes noise,” Trump said. “You know what it is? I want to be a whale psychiatrist. It drives the whales frickin’ crazy.”
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